We will see if it goes in cycles, historically, there have been cycles of universities or regions doing well the way OU was such a power. Even if the “best” are from one region, there is still a lot of talent around the nation for the collegiate level at least. That is what colleges such as Boise State were built on. Let’s not forget ALL of the big colleges get breaks as well and in some ways, lock out the smaller ones.
TCU is awesome and the odd-man out this year. That happens in college ball though regularly. They probably should have had a better shot at it, I don’t know the system well. Ohio State and Oregon have impressive victories as well.
The strength of the SEC is that four different teams won consecutive national championships from 2007-2010. Totally unprecedented. What is the closest any other conference can come to this? Maybe the Big10(ish) if you look at a 50 year period. In less than that, the SEC had six different teams win championships.
Memories are short when spinning conspiracy stories about ESPN. They had no room for sympathy for an undefeated Auburn and its stronger schedule in 2004 and they actively promoted Michigan over Florida for the slot in 2006. In the latter instance, ESPN had Big10 games competing against the SEC on CBS. They desperately wanted an Ohio State-Michigan rematch.
ESPN is about ratings; that’s the business they’re in. More eyeballs watch SEC games. Therefore, ESPN is responding to market demand. The free market has decided SEC teams are more fun to watch.
So, the SEC wins championships at a much greater frequency than other conferences and it dominates in regular season TV viewership. I would guess they also have better attendance numbers with at least 8 stadiums well over 80,000 capacity.
I despise what ESPN has done to the game - forcing changes to the clock rules to allow for more commercials (and fewer snaps), deciding start times to fit their needs, not ticket buying fans, etc., but they openly bid for the rights in an open market and they won.